Airbus A220 Grounding News

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:04]Air Baltic's latest quarterly update paints finally a more positive picture on the long- aaited usage of the Airbus A220 in its operation after years of discomfort. The Latvian carrier has been living with disruptions to its A220 fleet stemming from those Pratt and Whitney engine issues for quite an extended period making it among the hardest hit by this regional fleet type.

[00:00:29]Now, the Latvian carrier says that no aircraft during Q1 on the ground were actually caused by engine issues that have plagued the fleet for so long. This is ultimately something that has not been said for years. Moving into the summer 2026 peak season, Air Baltic also adds that it expects engine related groundings to be minimal, no longer requiring the drafting in of ACMI aircraft to cover capacity losses driven by fleet complications. The core issue for those Airbaltic A220 operations wasn't anything to do with the aircraft's metrics, say, or its performance. It was rather the reliance actually on something as important as the engines, which leaves it very vulnerable to complications occurring naturally in any capacity. The plane unable to get off the ground, especially without its engines. The A220 is also the only family that Air Baltic flies.

[00:01:24]It has gone allin on this aircraft. And we already know its ambitions extend to try having 100 of these in service by the end of the decade. So it needs the aircraft to be fit and active to achieve the high utilization rates across the network during peak and low demand seasons to turn a profit. These engines have been the center of concern and have even stretched beyond just the A220 towards the A320 Neo family jets at other airlines with them being stripped off planes too. This has forced planes to be grounded for maintenance or inspections, leaving airlines unable to absorb the hit from ballooning overall costs. Air Baltic has spent years in pain attempting to juggle persistent groundings that have hurt the network, not only the grounding of the planes, but you've got to remember that this has gone on to cut routes and we've had to see the interim leasing of jets, which is less than ideal. It drives up operating costs and it's the only way that the business can try and ensure that the schedule remains somewhat intact. Just 2 years ago, the airline said that engine shortages were a big problem and it meant that grounded planes couldn't also have the engines replaced with spares to keep them active. The shop visits were spurred on by complaints around the powdered metal, the focal point massively. In Q1 of last year, meanwhile, so essentially 12 months ago, Air Baltic had over 10 A220s on average continuously on the ground, leading to a sharp reduction in capacity and an obvious rise in operating costs that I touted one year on. Now, the number of these regional jets on the ground for the reason has reduced. While Air Baltic's A220 fleet returning to normality after years of discomfort is huge for the airlines own ability to one day reach profitability and grow. The passengers who use these planes are expected to be the big winners. The immediate benefit to an ungrounded fleet is self-explanatory, but passengers obviously are going to be able to enjoy a schedule that can finally scale upwards with demand and create a more familiar and harmonious experience across a single fleet type. Because it's all fine and well that Air Baltic has only got a reliance on the A220, but in the case of where these planes have been grounded and they've had to go towards the leasing market, there's not always a guarantee that they'll be able to draft the same aircraft type in. That creates a bit of discrepancies. In the past, a mixed service offering was the best the business could really do to lessen the blow. The mixed service driven by that emergency lease coverage meant that the airline would take fewer hits. But even then, the summer 2025 schedule saw over 4,500 cancellations. While there have been some concerns about the airlines business model and whether this is one that will succeed for the long term, one thing we know for certain is that if these A220s were to continue to spend time on the ground due to engine related wos deeper into the decade, it doesn't really matter how foolproof the Air Baltic business model is, it would be incredibly challenging for it to continue to operate without substantial compensation being delivered into its hands to cover for the lost ground. Love to hear your opinion on the A220 coming back into service. Thanks for watching and I'll see you back here very soon.

[00:04:41]>> And we'll fly.

[00:04:48]will fly